Tories hope Saatchi can get election campaign working

The decision to turn to Lord Saatchi indicates the Tories believe they need to adopt a more aggressive approach. Photograph: Martin Argles

David Cameron has turned to Lord Saatchi, one of the brains behind Margaret Thatcher's 1979 election win, to bolster the Tory campaign amid growing fears that victory is slipping from their hands.

As the Conservative lead fell to two points in the latest daily tracking poll today, the party confirmed it had signed up Saatchi, who dreamed up the famous "Labour isn't working" poster that defined the 1979 campaign.

It is understood that Saatchi, the Conservative chairman during the last election, is planning to ram home the Tories' central line of attack with a dramatic flourish. A poster showing 365 pictures of Gordon Brown will carry a strapline with words which are expected to ask: "Could you really bear another year of this?"

The decision to turn to Saatchi indicates that the Tories believe they need to adopt a more aggressive approach. One influential Tory said: "There is a massive tightening of the race. I do hope the leadership is not in denial about this."

The leadership tried to steady the party, and reach out to traditionalists who fear that Cameron has abandoned core ambitions of cutting taxes, by letting it be known that they would unveil plans to repeal a proposed rise in national insurance contributions. Senior sources told Tim Montgomerie, founder of the ConservativeHome website, that they had found a "wheeze" to reverse the increase.

A Tory source confirmed that George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, was working hard to go into the election with a pledge to reverse the rise, which is due to raise £7bn from 2011. "We are straining every sinew to find a way to avoid this," the source said. "We do not like it and will address it before the election."

But Osborne came under fire from the former chancellor Lord Lawson who said it was unwise to outline detailed tax and spending plans before becoming chancellor. Osborne is also due to spell out plans to recognise marriage in the tax system and further "in-year" spending cuts this year to reduce Britain's £167bn fiscal deficit. "If you start spelling it out there is a risk that you have severely restricted your freedom for manoeuvre for the task that has to be done," Lawson told the BBC.

Osborne's plans to reverse all or part of the increase in national insurance will be seized on by Saatchi, who has long campaigned for taxes to be cut for the less well off. Comparisons have been drawn between the "tax bombshell" campaign of 1992, which focused on the impact of Labour's tax rises on Middle Britain, and the planned NICs increase which will hit people earning £20,000 and above.

One senior Tory hoped that the return of Saatchi would show the party was refocusing on the economy. "There are only two things that matter in this election: the economy and leadership. David Cameron needs to show he is strong and that he will make people feel they will be wealthy. Everything else – Sam Cam, lobbygate, bullying – is noises off."

The leadership denied that the return of Saatchi marked a change in tactics or showed a lack of confidence in the party's main agency, Euro RSCG. A spokesman said: "The party has been working with M&C Saatchi off and on since 1978 and they are also part of the team working to help us kick out Labour in this campaign."

The Saatchi announcement is likely to fuel speculation about a battle between Andy Coulson, the director of communications, who is said to favour a harder, more negative edge and Steve Hilton, the director of strategy, said to favour a more positive upbeat campaign.

Lord Mandelson said of Saatchi: "The Tory high command would be better advised to turn their hand to new policy rather than bring in another ad agency to help them with their new posters."